24 degrees when I left my house today at noon

trying to get organized

the view ahead

staged photo just 'cause it looks funny to see Randi ride past a snowpile the same height as she is

for this:

we finally got snow!

Sam with his head in the ground

Daisy chased a squirrel up the tree

Daisy kissing Sam's wound (caused by a Junior puncture that Sam keeps scratching the scab off!)

Wound under the snow, he's cute even with a big blobby mess on his face

Daisy with snow beard

Sometimes they think they are Cujo

Ears flying!

Belly deep in it

my niece wrote a book about me

A few months ago, my 12 year old niece called me on the phone and wanted to interview me for a school project. She asked me questions for 45 minutes, how many brothers and sisters do I have, what kind of car did I learn to drive in, what events did I swim, what is triathlon, what is xterra, and where have I travelled too, and the list goes on and on. Yesterday Todd came home from their house with a book. This is it, its even a hardback book!:



Its the cutest thing ever! She had to make up a story about me and something I do, so she came up with a story about Todd and I going to Maui for the Xterra World Championships (although to her it is the Extera Championship :-).

The book is super cute, very funny, she has a great imagination. My favorite line is this :I got on my bike and fixed my hair so my helmet would sit safely in place. I probably looked like a blueish-purple blob. My helmet was purple with blue stripes. My biking outfit was blue with purple stripes. And my number was purple too. My bike was the same as my helmet and my shoes were white with blue and purple.

I just giggled as I read the story, what a treat that she chose to write about me when she has a whole gaggle of aunts and uncles and cousins to write about.

my childhood pre/during/post swim meet food favorites

Tomorrow I'm swimming in my first masters swim meet of 2009. I had pizza for dinner tonight. When I was an age grouper swimmer pizza (LaRosa's pizza, extra cheese) was my pre-meet meal (for evening meet sessions). I was a pretty picky eater as a kid. My mom was great. She indulged my breakfast pickiness (she didn't let me get away with only eating what I liked all day long, I still remember eating carrots, brussel sprouts and green peppers - I still don't care for those three things that much, but I have definitely grown to like a much wider variety of good foods). She went to two bakeries and got my favorite coffee cakes at each one. Every breakfast I had a chunk of each one and a pop tart. How's that for the breakfast of champions! Maybe that's one reason I didn't become a champion! ok, I feel like I became as much of a champion as my body and mind could muster at the time, so I definitely only hold fond memories of my food habits. When I was a really young swimmer (8&under) my favorite thing to eat during meets was jello - not prepared jello, but the jello powder out of the box. I'd walk around, box in hand, finger bright red from dipping in and sucking the jello from my finger. It was delish! After meets as an 8&under, hot dogs, french chews (chocolate and vanilla) were top of the list.

Back to today, pizza for dinner still hits the spot for a pre-meet meal. But I won't eat coffee cake for breakfast - Cheerios are now the breakfast of choice. And I'll have a couple of honey stinger bars on hand during the meet if I need a little pick me up, instead of jello. All's fair game though after the meet. I get rewards just for swimming the 200fly - as long as I don't drown or get DQ'ed, its a success!

PEARS!

I've eaten one pear in my life, years and years ago, and I recall I didn't like it much. So I always pass them up for other fruits. But last Friday my coworkers gave me a fruit basket, and there were 2 pears in it. I ate one today and I LOVED it! So, pears have moved to the top of my fruit list!

colder than a witches fart

ok, I don't really know what that means, because how do I know a witches fart is really cold? or that witches fart? or that there are even witches? (except for us Halloween babies). ok, point is - its cold here! and I heard someone say that the other day and it cracked me up. It was -1 this morning when I walked the dogs. The only skin exposed was around me eyes. Mositure froze on my lashes. Tomorrow I might break out some old ski goggles to walk them! And as I sit here in my warm living room, gearing up to venture outside to go to work, the news is showing the temps in North Dakota at -38! and that's not even with wind chill!

students, swimming, cat litter, and cereal bags

what do they all have in common? Nothing. Except they are all in my random post below.

The students have all come back to Bloomington for the start of spring term. It’s a big adjustment going from our sleepy town over the holidays to crazy pedestrian traffic, cars everywhere, long lines at the grocery, and an abnormally high number of users at the rec-sports facility (you know they all have to get in shape before spring break!). So I headed to the pool after work yesterday expecting the 25 lanes to be pretty full, and possibly half of the lanes usurped by the little munchkin age group teams who pay money to steal lanes away from the IU students/staff/faculty (I’m not bitter or anything, I just like to have my own lane!). But I was happily surprised to find there were no swim lessons, no age group teams practicing, and I had my own lane for my entire hour long workout. That should be highlight enough for a swim, but last night I knocked out 10x50’s fly on 1:00, getting tons of rest, no one arm fly, no one handed turns, no one handed finishes. 6 dolphin kicks of every wall. I was completely legal the whole set! I was swimming ala Michael Phelps. Ok, not really, because he would probably do 50x100 fly, or something ridiculously embarrassing like that. But this 42 year old was happy enough with her 50’s.

Then I had to stop and pick up some cat and dog food. I noticed some cat litter that is made from corn. My sweet dogs, Daisy and Sam, like to eat the cat poop straight from the litter box (I know, it’s disgusting). But when they are all at home, and we are not, who is going to stop them! Of course, they don’t just get the poop, they also get the litter (and you know that stuff can be like cement, and its going into their stomachs!). So, I thought corn based litter was a great idea. Now they will just be eating all natural ingredients!

Another recent realization is not to throw away the wax paper cereal box liners. You can get at least one reuse of them, if not many, as storage bags. So next time you finish off a box of Cheerios, save the bag, and reuse it a couple of times, the earth will be happier for it.